Yes, this is Studio One, Coxone Dodd, the premier recordings of reggae. Don't be put off by the seemingly old fashioned sound or the somewhat weak recording - just download, turn the sound up and enjoy - this is crucial stuff.
Despite the fire and brimstone that characterized reggae's revolutionary emergence in the 1970s, I have always had an abiding affection for the evolutionary period that immediately preceded that breakthrough, when the music seemed caught between two worlds. The style is usually referred to as rocksteady - post-Ska, but still experimenting with and expanding the possibilities of that one-drop, loping afterbeat; and though Rastafarian ideology was already beginning to swiftly gospelize the music (anthemed most notably… more »
